Field manual · WordPress

WordPress fixes, reproduced before they are written down

Every guide here starts from a broken WordPress install, not from a remembered fix. The break is reproduced, the fix is run, and the before and after are shown with the real output. If a fix cannot be reproduced, the guide does not get published.

The workshop log

• 10 November 2026

  Fix “Allowed memory size exhausted” in WordPress

  A request needed 64 MB and the site only allowed 40 MB — read the limit out of the log and raise WP_MEMORY_LIMIT to 256M.

  Symptom: critical error · HTTP 500 Fixed: limit raised · HTTP 200

• 10 November 2026

  Fix WordPress stuck in maintenance mode

  An interrupted update left a .maintenance file behind — delete it from the site root and the site comes back.

  Symptom: maintenance message · HTTP 503 Fixed: lock file deleted · HTTP 200

• 10 November 2026

  Locked out of wp-admin: reset your password without email

  The admin password is unknown and no reset email can arrive — reset it with WP-CLI or an MD5 hash in the database.

  Symptom: login fails · no email Fixed: password reset · wp-admin back

• 10 November 2026

  Fix “The uploaded file exceeds the upload_max_filesize directive”

  A 2.2 MB photo is larger than PHP’s 2M upload limit — raise upload_max_filesize and post_max_size in php.ini and reload PHP.

  Symptom: upload rejected · 2M limit Fixed: limits raised · upload succeeds

• 9 November 2026

  Fix a WordPress white screen of death

  Turn on WP_DEBUG, read the fatal error out of debug.log, and deactivate the plugin that caused it.

  Symptom: blank page · HTTP 500 Fixed: plugin off · HTTP 200

• 9 November 2026

  Fix “Error establishing a database connection”

  Tell a wrong password from a dead database server, then fix the right one.

  Symptom: database error · HTTP 500 Fixed: password corrected · HTTP 200

How a guide is checked

A guide starts with a site broken on purpose in a throwaway WordPress install — WordPress 7.1.4, PHP 8.3.6, MariaDB 10.11.14 in the current runs. The symptom is recorded, the repair is run, and the site is checked again. The guide prints the command and the real output, with the HTTP status before and after. What the official WordPress documentation says about the mechanism is cited inline and in Sources. A repair that cannot be run and shown is not published. Method carries the full procedure.